"Police forces went to the Media Production City in Cairo's 6 October, where the offices and studios of these channels are located, and evacuated them, according to Al-Ahram's Arabic-language news portal.

"The police also arrested some of the personnel working for these channels."

"Numerous journalists are also facing new legal threats in the two days since President Mohamed Morsi blasted independent media in his national address, according to Egyptian news reports, which also described the abduction of an editor. . . ."

"The Netherlands Embassy in Egypt released a statement yesterday saying that a 22-year-old Dutch woman was attacked in Tahrir Square on Friday night; an Egyptian news report said the woman was raped. She was treated in a Cairo hospital and then sent back to her family in The Netherlands. . . ."

"The political crisis in Egypt came to a head when Egyptian military chief Al-Sisi announced the removal of Morsi and temporary suspension of the country's constitution in a televised statement. Celebrations erupted in Cairo as he added that the chief justice of the constitutional court will serve as the country's interim leader.

"The coverage of the political crisis in Egypt was scant on cable news networks for most of the week, however viewers could turn to online news outlets. Fox News, MSBNC and CNN switched to the protests in Egypt once Morsi was ousted. NBC News also broke in with a special report anchored by Brian Williams. . . ."

Meanwhile, the White House embraced a new spelling of the now-deposed president's last name on Tuesday.

"A readout provided by the White House today, however, featured the romanized 'Morsy,' a spelling that has only been repeated since by CNN. . . ."

Richard T. Griffiths, CNN vice president/senior editorial director, responded on Twitter on Wednesday, "So, why does #CNN spell #Morsy like that? Because it is what he told us he prefers. It is how he spells his name in English."

Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency systems analyst who released sensitive documents on U.S. intelligence-gathering operations, has requested asylum from 20 countries, according to WikiLeaks. (video)

In an op-ed in the French newspaper Le Monde, Christophe Deloire, general secretary of Reporters Without Borders, and Assange wrote, "On October 12, 2012, the European Union won the Nobel Peace Prize for contributing to the 'advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe.' The EU should show itself worthy of this honor and show its will to defend freedom of information, regardless of fears of political pressure from its so-called closest ally, the United States.

"Now that Edward Snowden, the young American who revealed the global monitoring system known as Prism, has requested asylum from 20 countries, the EU nations should extend a welcome, under whatever law or status seems most appropriate.

"Although the United States remains a world leader in upholding the ideal of freedom of expression, the American attitude toward whistleblowers sullies the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. . . ."

CBS News reported Wednesday, "Snowden has applied for asylum in Venezuela, Bolivia and 18 other countries, according to WikiLeaks, a secret spilling website that has been advising him. So far, he's been rejected by Brazil, Finland, Germany, India and Poland. Several countries have punted on the decision, saying he has to be on their soil to apply, including Austria, Ecuador, Norway and Spain. Most countries, however, have yet to offer a firm response either way, including Venezuela, Bolivia, China, Cuba, France, Iceland, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Nicaragua, and Switzerland. . . ."

"While you might expect such a result with stories like the George Zimmerman murder trial and embattled celebrity chef Paula Deen's difficulties, the survey also found a disappointing disparity in interest on the Supreme Court's gutting of the Voting Rights Act, and higher interest among black people even in the saga of NSA leaker Edward Snowden. In fact, black people showed more interest than whites in every story in the survey, with the exception of the Supreme Court's marriage equality rulings, where interest was equal.

"Here are the news stories that white people were following closely last week, in order of strongest to weakest interest:

"Same-Sex Marriage Rulings: 30%

"Edward Snowden: 20%

"George Zimmerman Trial: 18%

"Immigration Bill: 18%

"Paula Deen: 16%

"Voting Rights Act Ruling: 15%

"Texas Abortion Rights Filibuster: 13%

"And here are the news stories that black people were following closely last week, in order of strongest to weakest interest:

In the case of George Zimmerman, accused in the killing of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin, "An uncomfortable national conversation about race and justice had been touched off — in Sanford, at a 'Million Hoodie March' in New York and when President Obama called for 'soul-searching' and said if he had a son, 'he'd look like Trayvon, ' " Manuel Roig-Franzia wrote from Sanford, Fla., Tuesday for the Washington Post.

"Yet, 16 months later, this case that was so entwined with race has produced a murder trial in which race is a subtext rather than a central theme.

"Prosecutors have portrayed George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch enthusiast who shot the 17-year-old Martin, as being many things: profane, mendacious, overzealous, violent. But they haven't called Zimmerman, who is claiming that he acted in self-defense, a racist. Instead of becoming a meditation on race, the courtroom action is unfolding as a police procedural, a saga of guns and vigilantism, a glimpse of civic rage and frustration.

"Outside the courtroom, the case is still widely perceived in racial terms.

"Some here had hoped for more from this trial, which entered its seventh day of testimony Tuesday. . . ."

"An average of 612,000 people watched The N Word — 218,000 of them in the demo. The previous four weeks, CNN had averaged 388,000 viewers in the time slot, and 115,000 in the demo. Sure, CNN still finished fourth among cable news networks — third in the demo — with the controversial special. But, hey, up is up. . . ."

Sullivan quoted the email containing one reader's objections, then published Brooks' reply:

"In that column, I was trying to embrace and celebrate a more ethnically intermingled America. I conclude with this sentence: 'On the whole, this future is exciting.' To read this column as racist requires either a misreading or a strong desire to be offended, no matter what is on the page.

"As for the use of the word 'mutts,' history is filled with examples of groups who have taken derogatory terms and embraced them as sources of pride. To take the word 'mutt' as a derogatory term, you have to believe that purebred things are superior to mixed-breed things, whether it is dogs or people. But if you don't believe that, there is nothing to be ashamed of in the word mutt.

"I seized on the headline after I was in a group of people talking about the future demography of the country and one participant said proudly, 'We're mutts.' That seemed to capture the message I was trying to convey, so I used it in the headline and the piece."

Sullivan responded, "My take: As I noted above, columnists have the right to express opinion as they wish, in the way they want. And their editors generally make a point of staying out of the way. I believe Mr. Brooks when he says he didn't mean to offend. But comparing people to animals is always tricky, and 'mutts' is a loaded term. There must have been a better way to say this, especially in the headline. I wish he had found it himself or that an editor had insisted on it."

"Tribune on Monday said that it had entered into a definitive agreement to buy the stations, which would give Tribune a total of 42 TV stations — up from its current count of 23. The all-cash deal would make Tribune one of the biggest TV-station owners in the country and the largest independent affiliate station group for Fox Broadcasting. Tribune would control 14 Fox affiliates.

"The agreement is the largest broadcasting deal in the U.S. in several years. It comes less than a month after Gannett Co. announced an accord to acquire 20 big-market TV stations owned by Belo Corp. in a deal valued at $2.2 billion.

Another large independent station owner, Sinclair, also has been snapping up smaller stations in the past two years to extend its reach. . . ."

"The event, which featured performances by hip-hop artist 2 Chainz and Kendrick Lamar as well as R&B singers Ciara, Chris Brown . . . and Miguel, topped the 7.4 million viewers garnered by last year's show and match the audience for the 2011 BET Awards, according to Nielsen.

"On the social media front, the BET Awards accounted for 51% of all social chatter across all of cable on Sunday, dominating Twitter with nearly ten million tweets, said the network. . . ."

"Kerry Washington is finally getting the magazine covers many have long said she deserves," Esther Zuckerman wrote Tuesday for the Atlantic. "The Scandal actress had Elle all to herself in June and shared the cover of The Hollywood Reporter with other television actresses, but perhaps her biggest coup is August's Vanity Fair cover, released today. Now the quest is on to make it sell, as a successful venture for Vanity Fair — and hopefully a change in some of the magazine industry's most frustrating newsstand attitudes. . . . Magazines have a terrible habit of being reluctant to put black women on their covers. . . ."

A Latino Decisions poll of likely Latino voters showed that in a 2016 presidential matchup between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., 66 percent said they would choose Clinton and 28 percent Rubio. Asked the same about a contest between Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Rubio, 60 percent said they would pick Biden, and 28 percent Rubio, Fox News Latino reported on Tuesday.

In Philadelphia, "After only three years at CBS3, reporter Jericka Duncan is moving on up to the network," Molly Eichel reported Wednesday for the Philadelphia Daily News, referring to KYW-TV. "Duncan, who has been with the station since coming down from Buffalo, NY, will be part of CBS' Newspath coverage. (Think of Newspath like the Associated Press of CBS networks, with a team providing national news coverage for CBS' local affiliates.) Last year, Duncan was named Journalist of the Year by the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists. . . ."

Yanick Rice Lamb, Howard University associate professor and interim assistant chair of the Department of Media, Journalism & Film in the School of Communications, has been chosen a 2013 Summer Faculty Fellow at Howard's Moorland-Spingarn Research Center. Lamb plans to "explore issues and concerns of black journalists before and during the Civil Rights Movement and examine the impact of the Kerner Commission Report on the Black press and on Black journalists who entered 'mainstream media' upon the demise of Jim Crow," according to a June 8 announcement from the research center.

In commemorating the 89th anniversary of the International Sports Press Association and the world sports journalists day, Gianni Merlo, AIPS president, cited racism as one of sports journalism's challenges. "The phenomenon of racism, which is very dangerous because too many people undervalue the issue and ignore it, is on the rise, Merlo wrote for the Point in the West African country of the Gambia. "It is clearly connected to the dark picture of corruption and doping. In addition, racism in the stadiums will become stronger in the rest of the social fabric, creating a very serious danger for civil co-habitation if it is not stemmed and fought straight away. . . . "

Richard Prince's Journal-isms originates from Washington and is published Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It began in print before most of us knew what the Internet was, and it would like to be referred to as a "column." For newcomers: The words in blue (on most computers) are links leading to more information. The Web site BugMeNot.com provides passwords and user names to some registration-only news sites, but use may be illegal in some states. Any views expressed in the column are those of the person or organization quoted and not those of any other entity.